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Crist picks running-mate early to shore up new-party base

Charlie Crist broke with modern political precedent and reverted to the old way of balancing his Democratic ticket in the race for governor, which left several interested observers wondering about his motives.

Charlie Crist broke with modern political precedent and reverted to the old way of balancing his Democratic ticket in the race for governor, which left several interested observers wondering about his motives.

“Charlie is already exotic enough, he didn’t need to get somebody real different,” said John M. “Mac” Stipanovich, a veteran Republican political strategist. “Charlie doesn’t have a real primary, so he doesn’t need a boost to win the nomination.”

What he did need — and what he got Thursday by choosing Miami-Dade County Democratic chair Annette Taddeo-Goldstein — is what Stipanovich described as “a highly respected party stalwart of long standing to affirm his acceptance and allay his new friends’ fears concerning his sincerity and stability.”

Just three governors ago, a candidate for governor had to pick a second banana before qualifying — like presidents pick their running mates. Sometimes, like Lawton Chiles and Buddy MacKay in 1990, they announced in tandem, but more often candidates would build a little suspense and generate some buzz about several potential choices.

The 1998 Constitutional Revision Commission decided not to make them qualify in harness. By choosing a lieutenant governor candidate after winning the primary, a new nominee might reunite the party by adopting the second-place finisher, or reach out with a symbolic sop to some segment of the voters who needed fence-mending.

It’s not like they’re choosing a vital assistant. Gov. Rick Scott left the job vacant for almost a year. The $125,000-a-year post has no official duties, except to be there if the governor dies, resigns to run for something better or gets convicted of something serious.

Since the constitutional change, candidates in both parties have exercised their option to wait until after the primaries. But they’ve always been well-identified Democrats and Republicans — unlike Crist, who was a Republican legislator, Cabinet officer and governor until he bolted the GOP in a failed independent bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Democratic National Committeeman Jon Ausman of Tallahassee said Taddeo-Goldstein, as head of the largest county Democratic Party and one of five vice-chairs of the state party, brings the party credibility Crist needs. She’s close to state chairwoman Allison Tant and Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Ausman said, and is well known in the region Democrats desperately need a big voter turnout.

“He needed somebody from one of the big three counties — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, where you have one-third of the vote,” Ausman said. “She’ll also help us among women and Latino voters.”

Former state Sen. Nan Rich of Weston, who faces Crist in the Aug. 26 primary, said it was “arrogant” for him to act like he’s already the party nominee. She said having a Hispanic woman on his ticket early won’t mollify many Democrats who want to see Crist debate Rich on the issues.

“It’s presumptuous,” Rich said. “He’s answered a question — Who will be the running mate? — that very few voters are interested in. I believe voters would rather hear about his position on the issues and about his record as a Republican governor.”

Rich said she would not be picking a running mate before Aug. 26 — and, if Crist had waited, she wouldn’t have been available to patch things up anyway.

Whether they choose before or after they formally get the nomination, candidates sometimes run like political twins, as Chiles and MacKay were identified from the start. Others seek to provide a contrast, as Scott did with then-state Rep. Jennifer Carroll — a wealthy white political newcomer from Southwest Florida, running with a black, female retired Navy officer from Jacksonville.

Early this year, Scott named former House member Carolos Lopez Cantera — a Miami Hispanic — to replace Carroll, who was forced out in 2013.

“You look at four different things,” said Jeff Kottkamp, the last running mate Crist picked. “One is just someone you can have a good working relationship with. The second is someone who can help you govern, a policy person, because it’s an enormous task.”

As a state representative from Cape Coral, Kottkamp worked closely with then-Attorney General Crist, who put him on the Republican ticket in 2006.

“The third thing is, can this person help you shore up the base or, in his case, reassure the base?” Kottkamp said in an interview prior to Crist’s announcement last week. “Then the fourth thing would be someone who can get you votes. That’s the least important because it’s the least likely; frankly, people don’t vote for No. 2 on the ticket.”